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International Family Law News & Analysis

4.21.2014

While the United States Congress debates immigration reform, children
who are born in the United States to immigrating families who have not
properly used legal immigration procedures are placed in jeopardy. When
their parents are arrested, incarcerated, or deported, the children
suffer grave potential for harm.
'ARE WE THERE YET'? IMMIGRATION REFORM FOR CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND, which can be accessed and downloaded at SSRN, provides an overview of this problem, while also offering some solutions.

The number of children placed in these circumstances is rising, as the
total number of children on U.S.
soil to illegal immigrants rose to 4 million in 2009, up from 2.7 million in 2003, according to one report' estimate. "Those children — who are automatically granted
U.S. citizenship — represent 5.4% of all children under the age of 18 in
the U.S. That compares to 3.7% six years earlier, according to data
from the non-partisan Pew Hispanic Center. That percentage will continue
rising, as an estimated 340,000 of the 4.3 million babies born in the
U.S. in 2008 alone — about 8% — came from illegal immigrant parents, the
report says.” (See Alan Gomez, U.S. Sees Rise in Children Born to Illegal Immigrants, USA Today, Aug. 12, 2010 (noting that some argue the immigration debate is political “fear mongering”)).

Children in the United States need legal reform to accommodate their
interests as U.S. Citizens. Family Restoration is possible when
municipalities work together to protect and provide for children
throughout the nation, even those who are separated from their parents
by immigration deportation.

2 comments:

The LA Times recently posted an article that shows that the Obama administration, the Illegal Alien lobby, and the major media outlets have been in collusion to depict the "high" deportation numbers. The exact opposite is true since the beginning of the current President's policy. Interior deportation has and will be lower than 1973 rates. This is leading towards more people overstaying their visas and currently, more Illegal Alien minors crossing the border. Obama has just recently instructed border patrol to not turn back those Illegal Aliens on record as having entered illegally as priors, but to let them pass IF they don't have a major criminal record. After the first Illegal Entry, it is a felony each time thereafter.

The federal government has a national interest in families, which are foundational and essential for the growth of an individual. One's familial story and environment impacts him/her from birth till death, and a stable and cohesive family unit is typically more advantageous in regards to an individual's growth than is a broken home. With that in mind, legal recourse concerning illegal immigrants should not focus so stringently on applying deportation procedures, all while unable to reconcile these procedures with a child born of illegal parents on American soil is indeed an American. Courts act as if they are forced to view this situation and create a rift in the family simply by virtue of applying current laws. If the law is carried out in this way, there is another broken home created in America, and another child born and raised to an avoidable disadvantage. American laws should reflect the importance of a cohesive family unit by either legalizing the parent(s) of the American child, or by allowing the child to instead take on the nationality of the parent(s) regardless of being born on American soil. It is a complete paradox that in America, the "melting pot," an astute sense of nationalism is an acceptable write-off for breaking up families simply because of citizenship technicalities.

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The state of the family in culture opens up incredible opportunities

for the body of Christ to offer new hope to a struggling world, particularly in family life and law. Teaching, researching, serving and publishing in the areas that affect families and Family Law, I have the privilege of teaching family law from a biblical perspective toward family restoration. Continue...

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Lynne Marie Kohm, law professor, author, lawyer, speaker, and

discipleship mentor, is dedicated to family restoration through the application of Christian legal principles. As the John Brown McCarty Professor of Family Law at Regent University School of Law, and a wife of 20+ years, a (homeschooling) mother of two, and leader in the realm of state and volunteer bar service, Professor Kohm brings a servant leadership model of family preservation and restoration to the practice of family law.

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